Google Glass is basically built from spare Motorola smartphone parts

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You probably already know a thing or two about what Google Glass is and how it works, but you probably don’t know what’s inside that makes the magic happen. It turns out that Google’s upcoming face computer is built using parts that are very similar to the ones in the Motorola Droid Bionic.

It all starts with the SoC: a dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP 4430. It’s nowhere near top-of-the-line by today’s smartphone standards, but it’s still a very capable mobile chip. Chrome OS hacker extraordinaire Liam McLoughlin (perhaps better known as Hexxeh), who did some digging to identify the Glass internals, wasn’t able to determine what speed the chip was clocked at.

TI’s specs note that it’s capable of running up to 1.2GHz, but it’s very likely that Google has clocked it down to squeeze extra life out of Glass’ diminutive battery.

The system also reports 682MB of RAM, though it’s safe to assume that there’s really 768MB or 1GB (like the Bionic) inside and that it’s partially reserved.

As for the software, Google Glass leans on the slightly-outdated Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. Again, not cutting edge, but plenty good enough to power the Glass experience in its present incarnation.

And for those of you who love the thought of hacking Google Glass, know this: it’s apparently pretty easy to root. According to McLoughlin, all it takes is a quick flip of the debug mode switch and reboot-bootloader command. Cydia’s Saurik has also rooted his Google Glass.

So what do two of the most well-known firmware hackers on the planet have in mind for Google’s wearables? Time will tell, but one things for sure: it’s going to be fun to see where their adventures take them.